They Came From Chicago
by Blueninja33
Summary: A very unusual case has Beckett and Castle team up with some specialists from Chicago, and of course it's Dresden and Murphy. Crossover between Castle and The Dresden Files books . Prequel to "Whale of a Time". Dresden/Murphy and Castle/Beckett.
1. Chapter 1: Setup, Exposition and Action

**Timelines=** **Castle: takes place before the season 1 finale. Dresden Files: takes place before Turn Coat. Also takes place before my other Dresden fic "A Whale of a Time".**

**Disclaimers= Standard, I own none of these characters, except for Joe and James Tasch and Daniel Kazicky.**

**They Came From Chicago**

"Castle, tell me you've got her," Detective Beckett shouted across the police station to her unwelcomed shadow. She was forced to put up with him following her around so that he could get information and ideas for a new line of books that he was going to be writing based on her. In all honesty she was starting to get used to him being around, but she would _never_ let him know.

The case that they were working on was very similar to the Buonsi murder from about a month ago. The victim was found dead inside a spiritualistic circle, his throat was cut and his own had been used to make the circle. The problem was, while it did have elements of Vodun to it, it also had what were identified as Egyptian, Chinese, Vietnamese and astrological symbols. They had been working on this for four days with nothing. There were no fingerprints at the scene but there were at least four different shoe prints. The victim was identified as Joe Tasch. According to his I.D. he was from Arizona, after several calls it turns out that his parents were dead and his only living relative was his brother James. He was on vacation in New York for the week. They had no luck reaching his brother. One year ago he moved away to Tibet to live in a monastery. They had to confirm that from four different people before anyone believed that.

"_Who does that?"_ Ryan had asked.

"_I don't know. I'd only be so lucky if Castle would decide to do that though,"_ she had said. The remark got laughs from Ryan and Esposito and predictable complaints from Castle himself.

Then they got a call from the Chicago Police Department saying that their case was almost identical to one that the CPD had been looking into for over a week. The CPD had some people in Indiana that they were going to send over to help with their investigation. That was yesterday morning. They were supposed to arrive sometime today, there was no exact time because they were driving here.

"Sorry Katie, she's still not answering her phone. I hope she's-----Ahhh! Apples! Applesapplesapplesapples!" When he had gotten close enough Beckett had grabbed him by the ear and twisted.

"What is my name?" she asked directly into the ear she was twisting.

"Ok Ok Ok. OUCH! It's Detective Beckett!" Castle shouted in pain.

"Good." And with that she released his ear and went back to working on her computer.

"Ouch. May I ask you, Detective Beckett, what you have against my ear?" Castle sat down at "his" chair-as it was now called-at the side of her desk, rubbing his ear.

"Nothing. It's the mouth that comes with it that I have the problem with." She never looked away from her computer screen, but she knew that Castle had that smirk on his face.

"Hey, that's pretty good. I'm using that." He began to scribble quickly into his little notebook that he always has on hand. Beckett just rolled her eyes.

"You were saying?" she asked after he had finished scribbling.

"Huh? Oh! Right. I was just saying, before I was attacked, that I hope that Michelle isn't in any trouble." Castle had been trying to get in touch with Michelle Peterson, his source for Vodun information for his books, since they had found the body, but she had neither answered her phone nor been at her apartment.

"I'm sure she's fine. She's probably just out of town." Beckett continued to look through the case on her computer searching for _something_ that she might have overlooked. This was her third time going over the case.

Castle saw that she was pretty upset and decided to try to lighten the mood up. After all, he was smart, handsome, clever and hilarious. With a smirk on his face, he tapped Beckett on the shoulder. With a sigh she turned to him and gave him a glare.

"You know, I've been working on this Christopher Walkin impression-"Castle was cut off as Esposito shouted from his desk.

"Beckett! The guys from the CPD are here."

"Thanks. C'mon Castle, let's go meet the new thorns in my side." She got up and started walking towards the front of the station; Castle fell into step beside Beckett.

"What've you got against the CPD?"

"What? Oh nothing, it's just that they're going to try to run this thing just because this started in their town. This is my town. I'm in charge here."

"Oh. I like that. I'm writing that also. You are in muse mode today. Excellent!"

As much as Beckett would have liked to remind Castle why he should never call her 'his Muse' ever again they had arrived at the guest area of the precinct.

"Hello I'm Detective Kate Beckett and I'm in charge of the investigation here." She wanted to cement her authority right off the bat with these people. She took a moment to look at the two visitors. The first one was a female with short blonde hair not an inch over five feet tall. She didn't look like much, but everything about her screamed "COP" to Beckett. She was dressed in black dress pants with a light blue collared shirt under a black sport coat and wore her badge and her gun on her belt-line. The other was male with dark unkempt hair and was over six and a half feet tall. He wore black jeans, a solid green t-shirt and a long black leather duster. He also carried a staff that had what appeared to be ruins carved on it. _Why do __**I**__ always get the weird ones,_ she thought to herself. He was definitely not a cop. She also got a strange vibe from him; she couldn't quite place it so she made a note of it and dismissed it for the time being.

The woman stood up and offered out her hand to Beckett. "Detective Beckett, I'm Sergeant Karrin Murphy of the Chicago Police Department. This," she motioned to the tall man beside her, "is Mr. Dresden. He's a private investigator and a consultant to the CPD in cases of this nature. We look forward to working with you and hope that we can help."

Castle noticed two things about Sergeant Murphy. 1) She was pretty cute. 2) She had delivered her greeting in a very practiced political fashion. He wouldn't have been surprised if she used to be in charge of a unit of some sort back in Chicago, though she obviously wasn't anymore: the boss doesn't get sent out on things like this. Regarding Mr. Dresden, a name that for some reason seemed familiar to him, he knew right away that there was a very interesting story to this guy. He couldn't wait to find out.

Stepping forward he put on his 'hello' smile and extended his hand. "Hi! I'm Richard Castle and I'm with….her," he finished lamely by pointing across his body at Beckett.

Sergeant Murphy looked surprised as she shook his hand. "Richard Castle? The author?"

Stepping his smile up a notch he nodded his head. "One and the same." Facing Mr. Dresden he extended his hand. "Richard Castle."

"Harry Dresden," came the strong voiced reply along with a strong and manly hand shake. The first name connected two dots in Castle's head.

"Oh! The wizard! I knew your name sounded familiar." Receiving confused looks from everybody Castle decided to clarify. "I wanted to interview you a couple years back for information for one of my books! _Unholy Storm_. I wanted your take on some pagan ritual practices."

Dresden nodded his head. "Ah. I remember. I wasn't able to make it out to New York but I gave you a local source. I think it was a Michelle?"

"That's right. Michelle Peterson. She's an absolute expert on the Vodun practices."

Looking slightly impressed, Dresden started rubbing his chin. "Vodun? Not very main stream, but very interesting stuff. How'd that book of yours work out for you?"

That knocked Castle's smile down a notch or two. He took solace in the 'are you kidding me?' look that Sergeant Murphy shot Dresden. "Um. It was on the _New York Times _best seller list for a month."

Patting Castle on the back, and moving him slightly out of the way of the officer that was leading a very mean-looking person past them, Dresden gave him a smile. "Really? Well, good for you."

It was somewhere around that moment that the very big and mean-looking person being lead past them elbowed the officer escorting him in the face, grabbed Murphy's gun from her holster, pointed it at her head, grabbed her around her throat from behind and pulled her in front of him.

Addressing everybody around him he bellowed out, "Anybody moves and she gets a lobotomy!"

**A/N: Whooo! First Castle/Dresden crossover fanfiction ever!! For Dresden fans: don't worry, this chapter is mostly a big set up chapter. I decided to have this from the Castle point of view. But there will be plenty of magic and such. For Castle fans: I didn't know / couldn't find what Michelle's last name was so I made one up. I'm not sure if they gave her one in the show, so if you know what it is please PM it to me and I will edit it. Reviews are ALWAYS appreciated and welcomed.**

**P.S. I now have a BETA!!! Thanks you sooooo much to Rosethorn for your awesome and speedy job at editing my fic. You get 2 gold stars.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Hunt Begins

**A/N:**Sorry for the delay. I'm not joking when I tell you that they sent my new battery and power charger to France instead of my house in Illinois. This is the Beta'd version, and what a wonderful Beta I have.

Everything stopped in the police station. All the cops stared at the thug that had Murphy in a choke hold and a gun to her temple. The thug had to be at least six feet tall and looked like he could bench press a city bus. If it wasn't for the circumstances of the situation Castle might have actually laughed at the size difference. As it was, Sergeant Murphy's head was dwarfed by the size of the thug's arm.

Castle's mind raced, trying to think of how he could talk himself out of this situation or somehow outsmart the thug. In the back of his mind he kept a log of everything he felt- it would make better writing using what he had actually felt.

"I swear to God! I'll blow a hole through her head! Back OFF!" The thug shouted, rubbernecking to look to his sides and behind him.

Beckett slowly raised her hands to about shoulder height. "Everybody, do what he says," she said to the room in general. People were starting to copy her movements and making a general perimeter around him. The thug had taken Murphy several steps away from where she had been next to Dresden, who was still where he had been when this started. Regarding the thug she spoke with a softer voice, "Don't do anything stupid. We all want to walk away from this. Trust me, if she doesn't walk away you're not going to walk away."

Castle couldn't help but be impressed. With all the adrenaline pumping through his system and how hard his heart was beating he wasn't sure if he'd be able to act that cool. Sure, he'd done it once when the gun was pointed at _him_, but there were other people at risk here. Looking over to Dresden, Castle was shocked to see an amused smile on his face, as if Dresden actually found this situation comical. Looking to Sergeant Murphy he noted that she looked mad. Very mad, but not the least bit scared. He was wondering just who these people were that regarded having guns pointed at them as a waste of their time. _Just what could they have been through that makes being at gunpoint seem so mundane?_

Snapping back to present, Castle saw that the thug was walking towards the door and taking the Sergeant with him. "I plan on walking out of here. And _she_," he shook the woman trapped between his biceps for emphasis, "is going to be coming with me. Insurance policy, you might say."

Taking a step forward Castle mustered enough courage to talk. "And just how do you think you'll get away? What's the plan? To kidnap a cop, _from a police station_, and then just walk away with a gun pointed to her head?"

Giving Sergeant Murphy another shake and adjusting his grip on his recently acquired pistol, the thug—kidnapper, Castle upgraded his title in his head—just gave a smirk, showing his lack of several teeth.

"No. I saw these two pull up outside when I was in the back of the patrol car I was in. They're in an unmarked car, right outside these doors and the little missy here has the keys." His smile grew a bit, he seemed to be quite pleased with himself. "Once I'm an hour or two out of town I'll drop her off with no harm done. Unless you cops try to stop me; then she dies." Leaning his head closer to Murphy's, while still keeping an eye on everyone around him he put on what he must have thought passed for a seductive voice. "So what do you say honey, how bout you get me those keys? Nice and slow like. If I think you're doing anything funny, kiss you're skull goodbye."

To Castle's amazement, Murphy rolled her eyes and grunted as if the kidnapper had told her a bad joke and not just threatened to kill her. The kidnapper seemed a little confused by her reaction as well. Giving her a little shake from her biceps, he tried again. "Whassamatter missy? I said give me the keys." He pressed the barrel of the trigger to her head a little harder with the last sentence.

A movement at the corner of castle's eye caught his attention. It was Dresden, he had taken a step closer to the kidnapper and started smirking, like he was enjoying this. _Who are these people?_ He noticed that Beckett didn't seem to happy about this either. Before either could say anything though, Dresden opened his mouth.

"She doesn't like you."

The kidnapper looked up at the random comment. A couple seconds passed before he understood what Dresden had said. An evil smirk crossed his face. "Oh yeah? Well that's too bad cause I'm starting to like her more and more. Hehehe. I was just thinking that we might-"

"I don't like you either," Dresden interrupted the kidnapper, "You'd better be careful, we're wanted men! I've got the death penalty in twelve systems!" Dresden had puffed out his chest proudly at that statement.

It was an understatement to say that people were confused at what Dresden had just said.

"What the hell are you talking about man," the kidnapper questioned angrily. He looked Dresden in the eye as he tightened his hold on Murphy. "I don't know who you-"

The kidnapper suddenly got a very faraway look in his eyes and his body relaxed. Overhead, a light bulb burned out. Feeling her opportunity, Murphy dropped into what Castle recognized as a horse riding stance from when Alexis had taken karate. Seeing what was about to happen, Esposito dropped the cup of coffee in his hand and went for his gun. Moving with a fluid grace that only came from years of practice, the Sergeant brought her hands together into a praying pose then thrust them both up and broke the choke hold he had on her and grabbed his gun arm. Murphy shot up as she brought the arm down on her shoulder resulting in the elbow bending in a direction it was never meant to bend with a loud 'POP'. The gun fell out of his hand. Not stopping for an instant, Sergeant Murphy brought her feet together, grabbed the would-be kidnapper's other arm and flipped him onto the ground. The body, gun and coffee mug hit the ground at the same time.

The police station erupted into slightly organized chaos. Castle rushed to pull Sergeant Murphy away from the would-be kidnapper, not so much for her safety but for that of the thug. Beckett, right behind Castle, dropped to the floor next to the thug—kneeing him in the stomach completely by accident—and handcuffed him.

Shaking Castle's arm off her shoulder, Murphy walked over to where Dresden was standing. He looked like he had some kind of headache and was trying to shake it away. Castle couldn't help but notice how close they stood to each other. Before anything could be said, a very angry Beckett stormed over to Dresden.

"Just what the hell was that? I don't know what the two of you are used to in Chicago but around here, doing something that could endanger the lives of everyone inside this station is not acceptable!" Castle had seen her like this before, whenever something threatens her people she takes it personally.

"Detective Beckett!" She turned around to see Captain Montgomery walking over from his office.

"Captain. Sir, these people just-"

Cutting her off with a wave of his hand Captain Montgomery stood in between Beckett and Dresden. "I saw everything, Detective. I'll take it from here." Turning to Dresden, the Captain took a breath before continuing, "On behalf of the New York Police Department, I would like to thank you for your help in defusing what could have been a very disastrous situation."

"But Captain!" Beckett was once again silenced by a wave of the Captain's hand. He continued.

"However, as you are not an actual officer of the law, I must ask that in the future you leave situations such as these to the trained professionals. Do I make myself clear?"

Holding up his hands in surrender, Dresden nodded his head. "Yes sir. In any future situation that I may encounter I will defer to either Sergeant Murphy or Detective Beckett."

Nodding his head, Captain Montgomery looked around, "All right, if that's all then, I've got some serious paperwork to do now." With that, he walked back towards his office.

Murphy elbowed Dresden in the gut and pointed with her eyes to Beckett.

"Oh, right. Um, Detective Beckett, I'm sorry that I acted without telling anyone what I was doing. I guess I sometimes jump without looking."

Becket regarded Dresden for a second before exhaling sharply. "No, no. It's okay. You were helping Sergeant Murphy. None of our people were hurt. I just haven't gotten much sleep over the past few days because of this case so I'm a bit cranky."

Giving a half-laugh, Dresden gave a solemn nod. "I've been there a couple times."

Not being able to resist the jibe, Castle joined the conversation. "Yeah, I bet all those werewolves and vampires and faeries can keep you up at night."

Sharing a look with Murphy, Dresden just laughed.

"What the hell happened here?" Everybody turned to see Ryan slowly walking toward the group, looking around.

Putting her hands on her hips, Beckett turned to Ryan. "And just where have you been?"

"Um, in the bathroom. But seriously, what happened here?"

Leaning his staff up against the nearest desk and plopping down into its chair Dresden gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "It was nothing. Just a slight altercation."

At the same time several officers were helping the severely injured would-be kidnapper past them. When the thug saw Dresden sitting in the chair he straightened up and struggled against the officers to try to get to the other side of the station. "Keep him away from me! The fire…he isn't human…he can kill us all! His shadow is death! A sword hangs above his head! His power! He's not human!" As the officers dragged him away into the other room the screaming quieted.

Looking back at Dresden, Castle couldn't help but be confused. That thug had had his arm broken by someone half his size, but he was terrified of the guy that stared at him? These people were getting more interesting by the minute. "Mr. Dresden, what did you do to that guy? You just looked at him and he went into La-La Land. Was that some kinda magic trick?"

Rubbing his neck and tilting his head to the side, Dresden responded, "I guess you could call it that."

"Magic?" Beckett seemed to find the very word a joke. "Right, and I work for the secret Dollhouse."

Stepping forward, Ryan waved his hand at everyone, "Two things. One, the Dollhouse is real and I don't care what you guys say. Two. Will somebody please tell me what happened here?"

"Nope," came Esposito's response. Walking over and returning Murphy's temporarily hijacked gun to its rightful owner, he continued, "I think that since you missed it you shouldn't be able to know about it."

"Yeah? And just how the heck are you going to keep the whole station from telling me?" Ryan looked pretty smug. Esposito fish-mouthed for a few seconds before looking to Castle. Taking his cue, Castle stool up on the nearby chair and addressed the station in a loud voice.

"Attention everybody! Ryan here missed out on what just took place a few minutes ago. If anyone tells him what happened, I'm taking the cappuccino machine away permanently." This was met with collective grumbles from the police station. Ryan didn't look so smug anymore. Esposito did.

Leaning over to Murphy, Dresden stage whispered, "They have a cappuccino machine. Why don't you have a Cappuccino machine?"

Murphy just pointed to Castle.

Feigning shock, Castle pointed to himself, "Why would you assume that I have anything to do with this?"

Giving him a 'oh please' look that was mirrored on Beckett, Murphy answered, "Because we're cops, and cops are destined to drink bad coffee." This was met by solemn nods from both Ryan and Esposito. "Besides, "Murphy continued, "What cop can afford to buy something like that for the station?"

Raising his hands in surrender, Castle admitted defeat.

"All right," Beckett jumped in before they got further sidetracked. "Would anyone here actually like to work on the case?"

Castle could see Murphy shift into 'cop mode'. He'd seen it on Beckett enough times to recognize it. Moving into the break room they all gathered around the report file while Castle got everyone some coffee, which was met with much enthusiasm by the Chicagoans.

Dresden leaned forward. "Can I get a set of copies of these pictures please?"

Standing up, Esposito offered to get him copies of everything they had from the crime scene.

"So you couldn't find any forensic evidence left behind from the murderer?" Murphy asked while flipping through the rather short forensic report.

Clenching her fists angrily, Beckett answered, "Had a forensic team sweep it twice. All we found was the victim's own blood used to make the occultist designs. Not even a footprint, which doesn't make any sense! There is no way that he wouldn't leave a single mark on the ground with all that blood everywhere."

Looking at some of the pictures that Dresden had, Murphy spoke up, "That's assuming that he was walking on the ground."

Dresden looked up at Murphy on that and nodded his head. "That's a good point."

Snapping her fingers, Beckett ruffled through the pictures of the crime scene till she found the one that she wanted. "Of course! Look, this place is an old warehouse with a network of exposed steel supports running all over the roof. He could have rigged something to these beams to hang him above the ground! That's why we didn't find any footprints at the scene. And he could have escaped using the nearby roofs."

Looking at the picture and getting at where his partner was going with this, Castle got a little hopeful. "You mean like some kind of rappelling system or something like that?"

Beckett only nodded hadn't they thought of this before?

Shrugging his shoulders Dresden nodded, "That's one possibility. But I'd definitely take a look at the nearby roofs."

Nudging Dresden's arm, Murphy asked him, "So, what do you want to do?"

Grabbing the envelope Esposito had just arrived with full of photos of the crime scene, Dresden wiggled his eyebrows. "Road trip."

They all stood up at once and started heading out of the station. Tilting her head back towards Ryan and Esposito, Beckett instructed them to have a forensic team meet them at the warehouse so they could look at nearby roofs and the support beams in the roof. As they exited the building, Murphy got out the keys to her car.

"We'll follow you guys there."

Spinning around to face them, Castle held out his arms. "Whoa! Why don't you guys ride with us? It'll save gas, help the planet and all that. Plus we can bounce ideas off each other on the way there."

Looking at each other, Dresden and Murphy just shrugged and said, "Okay." at the same time.

Walking over to Beckett's car, Castle opened the driver' door for Beckett while Dresden opened the front passenger door for Murphy. Both men received similar glares from their partners and both men replied with a charming grin. Closing the doors for the women, both men looked at each other and gave the other a nod. Castle got into the back seat behind Beckett while Dresden put his staff in the trunk.

Getting into the back seat behind Murphy and taking out his copies of the photos of the crime scene Dresden conversationally asked Castle, "So, you ever think about writing another book?"

**A/N: That was a long chapter! Next chapter should be up within a week or so, but I'm having the hardest time placing a "Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy" reference...**


	3. Chapter 3: Scene of the Crime

**A/N:** Sorry for how long it's taking me between each of these chapters, school's just started up again and I'm crazy busy with Modern Physics and Multivariable Calculus (cringe). This is the Beta'd version.

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The ride to the crime scene was wholly uneventful, despite Castle's best attempts. For the most part Beckett and Murphy talked police talk and Dresden was absorbed in the crime scene pictures, jotting down notes and what appeared to be runic symbols on a red-covered pocket notebook. He would copy down a symbol and then write English words around it, occasionally crossing them out or drawing lines between words. It reminded Castle of how he storyboards for his books, picking out important themes and drawing connections between them. After a while of doing this Dresden put away his notepad into his coat, groaned and ran his hand across his face.

Castle jumped at the chance to have a conversation.

"Can't figure out what it all means?"

Slowly dragging his hand down his face, Dresden looked over at Castle. "No, I know pretty much what this is supposed to do."

Castle raised an eyebrow at this. "So what's the problem? If we know what the spell does, then we know what the killer wants right?"

"Nope."

Castle furrowed his brow at this. It seemed simple enough to him, but then again he only understood Michelle's description of magic as she had told it, so perhaps there was more to it.

Dresden moved one of the pictures of the crime scene—one that had a view of the full circle—so that it was between the two of them in the back seat. "There are two things that we still need to find out. The first is, why did whoever did this used this kind of circle. It just doesn't make any sense. He's using techniques from different sides of the planet within the same phrase in some places."

Castle picked up a picture that had a closer view of one part of the circle. "You mean like right here? It looks like it starts in Egyptian and then changes to Latin."

Dresden nodded. "Good eye. That's very uncommon in magic practitioners; people usually pick one style of pictographs and language and stick with that. I, for instance, use Latin because that's how I was taught. But I also know people that use Norse or Egyptian for the exact same thing that I use my Latin for and get similar results. Magic is a very personal process. The language or symbols that you actually use are only as important as the magic user deems them. I guess you could say it's like using a standard math equation but choosing your own variables. This circle is a combination of already existing equations that have been thrown together to create one giant equation where different variables can stand for the same thing."

"So what you're saying is that whoever's doing this is just mashing together similar magical spells from around the world into something that works? Doesn't that take a lot of skill to get them to all work together?"

"That's the confusing part. While it would take a great deal of skill in order to put all these together, someone with that skill would have also known that it would be easier safer to use one system of pictography to create the circle. By combining all these different kinds, if it isn't done just right, you could very easily kill yourself. The very creation of this circle is a contradiction of the creator's skill."

Castle thought about that for several seconds. That truly was odd. "Is it possible that it was a group of people that did this?"

"No way." This response came from Beckett. "The more people that are at a scene, the more evidence they'd leave behind. The place was spotless. It was just one person. I don't need _magic_ to tell me that."

Castle found it funny that Beckett was getting so worked up about this. He liked how her eyes narrowed ever so slightly and lit up with fire when she was angry or challenged. She could give as well as she got, and Castle hadn't met many women like that.

"But magic does tell us one thing that we didn't know before," Sergeant Murphy's voice broke Castle's Beckett-focus train of thought.

Beckett turned to look at Murphy. "Really? And what could that be?"

Murphy turned slightly in her chair so that she was talking to everyone in the car. "Well, if I understand what Dresden's saying about this spell—which I'm getting better at by the way—then this is very dangerous, and any experienced Wizard would find a different way to do it. So, what kind of people typically carry out very dangerous things that require a decent amount of skill even if they have little to no experience?"

Castle leaned forward in his seat, "Oh! A profile!"

Beckett sighed. "Most likely someone between the ages of 16 and 25. Given that the nature of the crime is linked to the occult, we can also assume the murderer was a loner in school. Apart from the occult aspect, that's one of the standard profiles for violent murders. That's nothing new to the case."

Castle felt like defending the visitors. "Yes, but now we've narrowed it down to one profile thanks to an expert opinion."

Even though he couldn't see it, Castle knew that Beckett was rolling her eyes, her beautiful brown eyes. Once again Castle's mind was interrupted from appreciating the aesthetic nature of Detective Beckett when Dresden spoke up.

"He's not over 20."

Castle and Beckett both turned to look at Dresden, but Castle beat Beckett to the question. "You know who did this?"

"No. Why would you think I did?"

Castle settled back into his seat, but he could see that Beckett was looking at Dresden every few seconds out of her rear view mirror. She was always in cop mode.

Murphy turned around in her seat to face Dresden. "They aren't used to how you answer questions very specifically with little empirical evidence in the middle of conversations."

"Would you mind explaining how you came to this revelation?" Beckett was getting annoyed.

"Well, with someone committing crimes like this, my people would figure out who it was if they were much older than 20. I'm 90% sure that whoever's doing this is new to the magical community and hasn't even been doing this for several months. Most likely, the murder in Chicago two weeks ago was his first."

"So people aren't born with their powers? They discover them when they grow up like in Harry potter?" Castle was having a great time picking Dresden's brain on this subject. He also noticed the grimace that crossed Dresden's face at the mention of Harry Potter.

"I hate those books, but yes, generally in later puberty magical powers start to show."

"We're here." Beckett announced as she pulled the car to a stop. The forensic team was already set up and the techs were inspecting the ceiling and support structure in the ceiling. Everyone got out of the car and Dresden removed his staff from the trunk and threw a grey cloak over his jacket.

As they all walked toward the scene Beckett resumed her questioning.

"How do you know it's a man?"

Dresden pointed toward the building with his staff, "All the runes on the circle are in the masculine form, both for the host and the recipient."

Castle had started to write things in his notebook. "So this was like some kind of soul swapping? Was he summoning a demon? Enchanting a bunch of brooms to do his chores?"

Dresden shook his head. "Close on first guess, but not on the second two. He was stealing and fusing the victim's soul to his own. In reality, this won't actually empower a person very much; not many people can actually use their own soul for magic."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "All right, but what about the people you were talking about earlier? Who exactly are they?"

"Well, think of them as a kind of neighborhood watch for the magical community. It may not sound like much, but trust me, they know what they're doing."

Beckett turned to Murphy. "Do you know who he's talking about?"

Murphy nodded. "I've met some of them briefly, but what Dresden said it true. They take their job very seriously."

"Should not everyone take their job seriously?" The voice came from Castle's side, causing him to jump slightly and let out what could in no way be considered a manly yelp. The source of the voice was a rather round man of about average height. On his head was a grey fedora that matched his grey cloak which was worn over his grey three piece suit. The wall of grey appearance was only set off by his bright emerald tie, ring and walking staff which, if you looked closely at it, bore ruins along the length of the shaft, similar to Dresden's staff.

Dresden walked over towards the man and extended his hand. "I would argue, Vincent, that there's a difference between taking something seriously and being obsessed with it."

Vincent took Dresden's hand. "A matter of opinion my good man." Letting go of Dresden's hand he turned to the rest of the group. "If you would kindly excuse us, I must speak with Mr. Dresden in private for a moment." Vincent moved away from the group and waited about ten feet away.

Taking a few backwards steps from the group in the direction of the Warden, Dresden waved in hand in a shooing manner. "I'll catch up with you guys inside. These guys don't like working with cops, but they'll work with me. This'll only take a couple minutes." With that Dresden turned around, and the two men walked towards the road talking.

Turning back to the warehouse and rubbing her head, Beckett addressed Murphy, "I take it that he was one of those neighborhood watchers that Dresden was talking about?"

Murphy gave a crisp nod of her head. "Yep."

"Seem like an eccentric bunch of people.

Murphy gave another nod. "Most are."

"And you work with these people a lot?"

Another nod. "It's the job."

Beckett stole a glance at Castle. "They don't pay us nearly enough."

This got a laugh out of Murphy. "Not by a long shot."

Normally, Castle would have said something to retort Beckett's jibe, but he was caught up in thinking about the case so far. He had worked on many different cases with Beckett, but this one was unique in several ways. Even when he had been working on the Buonsi murder, a case that would normally seem very similar to this one, it had a very different tone to it.

It was Dresden and Sergeant Murphy. they were different from normal cops that Castle had seen in New York. Dresden was like some odd combination of a Clint Eastwood Cowboy and Gandalf the Wizard, marshalling the wild world of magic and punishing the evil wizards that cross his path. Then there was Sergeant Murphy. Despite how she acted, Castle knew that she believed everything that Dresden said. Not only that but she trusted him. It was obvious that the two of them had been through a lot together, but Castle wondered what she had seen that had lead to her firm belief in the existence of magic. So here she was, a regular human cop trying to capture and punish the evil wizards alongside Dresden. Castle thought it would make a pretty good book, maybe even a series.

Once they got into the warehouse, Beckett walked Sergeant Murphy through the crime scene, which revealed nothing new to either of them from what had been discussed in the station.

"Detective Beckett!" A tech on a ladder over the circle waved his hand, "We've got something."

Beckett practically ran to the ladder, while Castle and Murphy took a fast walk. Another ladder was placed next to the one the tech was on. He was currently taking photographs of the cross support beam while Beckett climbed her ladder, eager to see the first bit of new evidence in two days.

Murphy turned to Castle. "She's pretty worked up about this one. Is something about this personal to her?"

Castle smirked. "No, she just doesn't like to lose. To her, until she's caught the bad guy, she's losing."

Castle saw a look of understanding passed over the Sergeant before she smiled and nodded. He supposed she had a similar attitude when working a case. The tech explained the evidence he had found. The thin layer of rust on the support beams in the open ceiling over the circle showed two instances of being worn away in a circular pattern around the beam.

"Looks like a rope was wrapped around these two spots and used to support something heavy. Any chance we could find some fibers left behind and match it to what rope he used?" Beckett reminded Castle of a cat watching its prey.

"We'll see what we can find. It's been several days since the rope was here so most fibers may no longer be here. If we find anything you'll be the first to know." Castle saw the tech relax slightly when Beckett started climbing down the ladder.

Castle held the ladder as Beckett descended it. "Well, it's nice that we're finally making some headway again, but is this really going to help?"

Beckett sighed and turned to Murphy. "See what I have to deal with?"

Castle looked between the women. "What?"

Murphy moved to stand closer to Beckett, her voice sounded like she was reciting from a textbook. "The more evidence you find, the more you know about the case. Every bit of evidence fills in a gap in the story of what happened here."

Castle held his hand in front of him in a placating gesture. "I know all that. I'm just saying that there's a killer out there and we need to find him and stop him. All we have is rope 's not like we found a list of places where this guy had been seen and where he might be staying."

Beckett laughed. "How long have we been working together? Has anything ever been that easy?" She took several steps towards Castle, "I'll tell you what," she poked her finger into his chest, "if you actually find a list like that, I'll kiss you."

Castle's eyebrows shot up as far as they could. "Deal." He walked away from the two women and began searching for clues. He knew that there was next to no chance of him finding anything, but for a chance to kiss Beckett without a gun or any violence involved he'd give it a shot. He hadn't gotten 20 feet away when he saw Dresden walking towards him, looking at a piece of paper.

"So does this place reek of Black Magic being used?"

Dresden looked up, folded the piece of paper and walked to Castle. "Not anymore, too many sunrises have passed. When the sun rises it's kinda like brushing your hand against a chalkboard. You can still see most of what was there, but brush it two or three times and it's gone. I bet it was pretty hard for you to walk around here when you first got here."

It was. Castle distinctly remembered that something about this place made everything inside him scream in fear. "It's always hard being at a murder scene."

Stepping past Castle and pointing to the circle, Dresden kept talking. "But I bet you couldn't even go right up to that circle. And I bet everyone was on edge also. No one talked about it, but you could tell that everyone felt something. It was like a cold shiver at the back of your mind and down your spine. But the next morning, it wasn't as bad. And now today, you have no idea why anything creeped you out about this place. That's how Black Magic affects people. Your body senses it and knows that it's danger and that you should stay away." Dresden turned around and walked right up Castle, Dresden's black duster flapping in the breeze like a cape. "There's no such thing as an illogical fear of the dark. There's plenty of things very Black in the darkness. It's a perfectly logical fear."

Castle didn't know what to do. There were several predominant thoughts running through his head at once: a desire to hide under his covers back at home, write down what Dresden had just said because it was a great quote, finding Beckett's evidence so he could get a kiss, and asking to shadow Dresden around his work in Chicago.

Dresden made Castle jump when he suddenly slapped both his hands together. "But enough about that. What I miss?"

Castle took a moment to compose himself, then he filled Dresden in on what had been found on the beams. As Castle was explaining, Dresden took a pen out of his pocket, unfolded the paper he had in his hand and wrote something on it.

"What's that?"

"Hmm? Oh, this?" Dresden waved the paper a bit. "It's from my colleague outside. He had been asking around the magical community to see if anyone new had been noticed. This is a pretty detailed list of where some people have been sighted fitting our description and where they might be staying. I was able to convince him that letting me have this was a good idea."

Castle's mouth dropped open. Closing it quickly, he slapped one of his charming grins on his face and took a step closer to Dresden.

"Say, Dresden, can I call you Harry?" Dresden gave a nod, "Harry, would you mind if—I—showed that to Detective Beckett?"

Dresden held the evidence close to him, like a child reluctant to give up a toy. "But, it's my evidence."

"I know, and you'll get all the credit for it! I just need to present it first. Trust me. I'll owe you BIG time for this."

"You're just going to show it to her and tell her that I found it? Couldn't I just show her?"

"Please! It's about a bet and this will help me win it."

"Do I get a cut?"

"What?"

"Well, if I'm helping you to win this bet then I should get part of the prize."

"…….Fine."

Dresden handed over the paper to Castle, and Castle all but ran over to where he left Beckett and Murphy.

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**A/N: **Sorry for what's my worst chapter ending line, but if I didn't end it there I'd be writing another couple paragraphs and I really want to get these chapters submitted. I hope the length of this chapter makes up for the time I made you guys wait. Only two chapters or so left for this one, then it's back to "Whale of a Time"

**P.S.--** I love reviews!!


	4. Chapter 4: Hot on the Trail

**A/N:** One more chapter left! Hope you enjoy! This is the BETA'd version. Also, how awesome was the Halloween ep of Castle! Malcolm Reynolds was back!

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Beckett stared at the piece of paper that Castle had thrust into her hands. She had been looking it over for the past minute. Castle knew that Beckett knew it wasn't a fake. The real problem was going to be convincing her that it was a trustworthy source.

"How do I know that this is from a trustworthy source?" Castle's smirk grew slightly at Beckett's question. He knew her too well.

"Because it came from Dresden! Well, from some of his associates in town at least. And Sergeant Murphy said that she trusts their information." Castle placed his hands behind his back and closed the distance between Beckett and himself. "Now, if memory serves, there was something of a bet about this."

A reddish tint flew into Beckett's cheeks. She was blushing; this was too good. He could see that she was trying to figure some way to talk herself out of kissing him. Castle knew that he had won though, there was nothing anyone could say—

"He lost the bet."

Both Castle and Beckett turned to Murphy.

"What?" The question was asked by Beckett and Castle at the same time, her voice tinted with hope, Castle's tinted with despair.

Murphy tapped the piece of paper. "Technically speaking, Dresden found this, not Mr. Castle."

"What? We never agreed—" Castle tried to defend himself.

"Nope. You lost. Bet over." Beckett's tone was concise and sharp. Castle was afraid to talk back, so he looked to Dresden for backup. Castle gave Dresden the universal sign for 'help me', he made several inarticulate sounds while gesturing between Dresden and Beckett with both hands. Dresden only shook his head and held up both hands. Traitor. Castle was about to try to talk his way back into winning the bet through masterful use of rhetoric and a generous application of his natural charm, when Sergeant Murphy spoke up.

"As much fun as this is, I really think we should be getting back to the case, especially since we now have this list of people that we can talk to."

"Yes, thank you Sergeant." Castle could see Beckett mentally kicking herself in the head. "Mr. Dresden, do you honestly believe this to be from a credible source? I realize that I am repeating myself, but there are a lot of names on this and I want to know it's not going to be a wild goose chase before I commit to this."

" I can assure you that there is merit to what is on that list. I can't promise you that every name on that list will yield more information, but we will know more when we're done. And if I may throw in my two pennies," Dresden stepped forward and examined the list, "These names with the asterisks next to them, they were marked because they are people who are very deep into the magical community. These people are most likely not going to talk to the police. If you don't mind, I'd like to visit these people myself while the three of you check out the other names."

Castle could see that Beckett didn't like this new information. "I don't want you out there by yourself. I understand what you're saying about these people, but you agreed not to go off and do things by yourself after the incident this morning at the station. Besides, what if some of these other people don't feel like talking to us?"

Dresden started to say something but then stopped. Castle could tell Dresden was counting to ten in his mind as he ran his hand across his face. "Listen," Dresden said, "I'm a licensed P.I.; I'm not some random Joe off the street. I know what people's rights are and I understand what I can and cannot do during the course of an investigation. These people do not like the police, and if I show up with the police they're just going to clam up because you are not part of the community. If you have any trouble let Sergeant Murphy take over, she's been with me long enough to know a couple of names to drop if she has to and she has experience with these people. If you let me do this my way you will get the information that you need."

Castle could see that Beckett knew he was right, but that she still didn't like the idea of loosing Dresden in the city without any supervision. "O.K., but you have to take Castle with you."

Castle saw this as a great opportunity to find out more about Dresden. "All right! This can be fun! What do you say?"

Dresden's response wasn't as enthusiastic as Castle had hoped. "If that's what it takes, deal."

Beckett stepped forward. "Castle, you had better keep a good eye on Dresden. I promise you for every dollar in property damage or every word of a report I have to write because of something that he does it will equal one minute in the ring that you have to spar against me."

The color drained from Castle's face. He knew the average sentence contained about 15 words, and even UFC fighters only spend about that much time in the ring each fight. He could handle 15 minutes fencing Alexis, but full contact sparring was something totally different.

The massacre that was playing in his head was interrupted by the arrival of Ryan and Esposito. Beckett divided the list amongst the three groups and got Ryan and Esposito to give Castle and Dresden a ride back to the station to get Murphy's car. When Dresden went to get the keys from Murphy, she pulled him off to the side and the two exchanged some words and finished with a quick hug. Castle wasn't sure what they were saying exactly, but he was sure that they were reminding each other to be smart and not to get hurt. When Castle went to get the list back from Beckett, she told him where he could buy a mouth guard, fight gloves and a cup; then she hit him on the arm. To say that he felt loved would have been a lie.

The ride back to the station consisted of Dresden giving Ryan and Esposito a list of things to ask as well as things that they should be on the lookout for when interviewing people in the magical community. Castle asked Ryan and Esposito for some hints if he wanted to start sparring with some of the cops at the station. Esposito told him to just take it slow and not to fight someone as skilled as Beckett right off the bat. Ryan told him to do a barrel roll; offered no further explanation and kept snickering to himself. After Dresden and Castle got dropped off at the station, they got into Murphy's car, stopped at a hotdog stand for a quick lunch and then headed off to the first name on the list.

The first woman, Dorothy McDowell, lived only a few blocks from where Michelle lived. Dresden agreed that after talking with Dorothy they could check on Michelle. When they got out of the car, Dresden removed his staff from the back seat and again donned the grey cloak. As Castle was about to knock on the door he was stopped by Dresden.

"What's wrong?" Castle asked. "This is her room, isn't it?"

"Yes it is, and it's not always the smartest idea to just go knocking on the doors of these people. Trust me." Having said that, Dresden stretched out his hand and held it just in front of the door. After a second of holding his hand near the door a slight smirk appeared on his face and he withdrew his hand. Taking a quick breath he rapped on the door three times with the end of his staff.

"I seek Dorothy McDowell!" Castle was sure that everyone on the floor heard Dresden.

Sounds of rustling and movement could be heard on the other side of the door before an old woman's voice crackled out, "Who's there? If it's more of you hooligans from down the hall you'll regret this." The door was opened by a woman who was easily in her eighties. She had a scowl on her face that made Castle immediately think of a number of stereotypical "wicked witches" he had seen on T.V. and in movies. She gave Castle a glare that made him take a step back. When she looked to Dresden her look of anger turned to one of surprise.

"A Warden! Oh, my sincerest apology sir! I was not expecting you!" Her voice had lost its hard edge and was replaced with just the slightest tremble of fear. She began smoothing out her dress and ran her hand through her hair several times. "I must look a mess! I was just cleaning sir."

Castle was astounded by the complete reversal of personality that Dresden's presence had brought on to this woman. He also noted that she had called him "Warden", a title that seemed to carry a good amount of respect. He was sure the grey cloak played into the title somehow, but he tucked those facts and questions into a drawer in his mind labeled 'Ask About Later.' Looking to Dresden now, Castle could see him smiling politely.

"No need for an apology ma'am. I was wondering if my associate and I would be allowed into your home to ask you a few questions. I assure you we won't be long."

"A Warden of the Council is always welcome in my home," she gestured to Castle, "and the same is true for anyone with them. Please come in."

Dresden and Castle spent the next 15 minutes talking to the now very friendly old woman and asking her about what she had seen. It turned out that Dorothy had seen a young man frequenting the apartment of Michelle Peterson. This spiked Castle's interest, he hadn't been able to get a hold of her for two days now, hearing this made him go from being uneasy to scared for her. _What if she was going to be the next victim_?

"Don't worry about her Mr. Castle, I spoke with her this morning. I wanted to know what was going on. She told me that he was a friend from out of town who was staying with her. She and I have known each other for several years so I believed it, although..."

Castle leaned forward in his seat. "Although, what?"

Dorothy furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. "Well, now that I think about it, she was a little out of it. She was talking fine, but it seemed like she never quite knew what to say." Dorothy's eyes opened suddenly like she had just been told her dog had been run over, "You don't think she'd been Enthralled do you?"

Castle looked to Dresden for clarification on what was going on. He had no idea what being 'Enthralled' meant, but by the way that Dorothy said it and the look on Dresden's face, it wasn't anything good. "Dresden, what does this mean? Is she going to be alright?"

Dresden didn't look at Castle, "Maybe, I won't be able to tell until I see her. However, " Dresden stood and picked up his staff, "This means he's violated two Laws of Magic." This drew a gasp from Dorothy. "Mrs. McDowell, thank you very much for your hospitality, but I'm afraid that we're going to have to take our leave now."

She stood and escorted them to the door. "Of course Warden Dresden, I'm glad I could be of help to you. Please be careful Warden, sir."

As Castle and followed Dresden to the car, he assaulted him with questions.

"Being Enthralled isn't that bad right?"

"It depends on-- "

" It's like brainwashing or being hyped up on drugs right?"

"Not exactly. It's--"

"Can she be snapped out of it without any permanent damage?"

"Are you going to let me—"

" If she's Enthralled then she won't be the next victim will she?"

"You're just going to cut me—"

" You've dealt with this before haven't you?"

"…."

"I knew I should have gone to check on her when she didn't return any of my phone calls. Don't you have anything to say about this!"

Dresden stopped at the side of the car and turned to Castle. "Yes! I've been trying to say something but you won't shut the hell up!" Dresden opened the back door and threw his staff in. "We need to stay focused on—"

"Stay focused! My friend's been placed under some kind of mind control by a serial killer!" Castle was furious. Who was this man to tell him not to worry about Michelle? "Have you ever feared for the life of someone you care for? What in your magical little life gives you the right to belittle this—"

Castle's rant was cut short by Dresden grabbing Castle by the collar and shoving him up against the hood of the car. Castle was completely ready to fight Dresden, it wasn't that he wanted to hurt Dresden, but when you throw a man up against the side of a car, he's going to want to fight back. He locked eyes with Dresden and glared.

Then everything changed. He felt like he was being pulled into Dresden's eye by his belly button. His senses were suddenly overloaded with sights, smells, feelings and emotions that were not his own. He felt agony, pain, suffering and only hints of happiness. He saw images of battle, friends in trouble, blood, fire, claws, fangs and creatures that were anything but human. The onslaught continued for what felt like a lifetime, but at the same time he knew it was only mere seconds.

As soon as it had started it was over. He was back up against the car with Dresden holding his collar. Dresden let go of Castle's collar and walked several steps away, seeming to compose himself. Castle realized this was what happened earlier at the police station, the thug had looked into Dresden's soul. Castle didn't pretend to understand it, but he knew that's what had happened. What he had been shown proved that Dresden wasn't joking about anything. Magic was real; it was powerful and it was dangerous. Castle had seen how powerful Dresden truly was, and some of the things he had done. But he had also felt the pain Dresden had lived through. He didn't blame the thug for believing Dresden to be a monster.

But Castle understood; Dresden was like Frankenstein's monster. A creature of great power, but incorrectly judged to be a monster because of what it was capable of. Castle knew that Dresden's power was in check by his humanity. He had seen it.

"I'm sorry." Dresden's voice made Castle jump.

"What?"

"I didn't mean to…I shouldn't have Soulgazed you. You don't deserve to see that, not with the life you've lived."

"How do you……its two way isn't it? I saw yours and you saw mine?"

Dresden nodded. "You've had a great life and you have a beautiful family. You're lucky."

"Listen, Dresden, I don't know what to say. You—"

"Stop." Dresden once again interrupted. "I don't want to talk about this right now. You're friends in danger, we need to help her."

Castle looked at Dresden for a moment, then nodded. "Right, what's the plan?"

Dresden took off his grey cloak and threw that on top of his staff in the back seat and closed the door. "We walk." Dresden did just that. He turned and started to walk away from the car, his coat flowing slightly behind him. Castle took out his notebook as he began to follow, making a note to include a coat like Dresden's somewhere in "Heat Wave".

"Where to? Is there some secret shop around here where we can get an invisibility robe or some kind of magic grenade?"

"No. That's just….never mind. We're going to walk to Michelle's apartment. I'm going to assume there's at least some kind of alarm set up near the building. Approaching on foot will let me see them and avoid them."

Castle stopped walking. "O.K., but her apartment's this way." Castle pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.

Dresden stopped, turned around, coughed and walked past Castle. Glancing back to the car, a question popped into Castle's head.

"Why are you leaving your staff? Isn't that a wizard's main weapon?"

"Yep. But I don't want them to know I'm a wizard." Dresden tapped the side of his head a couple of times. "Because I'm sneaky."

Castle snapped his fingers. "I see. Give him a false sense of security by having him think you're just a regular old human."

"That's the plan."

"All right," Castle reached into his pocket, "I'll just get Beckett to meet us and then we"ll—"

"No cops." Dresden turned to Castle quickly. Castle could see urgency on his face.

"If the cops get involved, our Warlock may get spooked and decide to cut his losses. That would be a very bad thing for Michelle."

Castle thought it through. Right now Michelle was being held hostage by this man. Castle realized that he had no idea what to expect if things led to violence. He didn't want her to become a human shield or innocent victim. If they were to try to take the apartment by force who knows what this 'Warlock", as Dresden called him, could do. That was something else Castle realized, magic was a factor that he never had to worry about before. This brought so many new things to consider. Could these people fly or teleport like in the movies?

Castle had to make a choice fast, would he leave Beckett out of the loop and follow Dresden's plan? While the plan was probably safer for Michelle, Beckett was going to kill him when she finds out about it. Castle smirked. It wasn't a hard choice.

"All right Dresden, what do you need me to do?"

**A/N: Hope you all enjoyed it! I know it's not my best chapter, but I'm saving all the good stuff for the next one. Despite my plans, it's looking like the next chapter is either going to be one big one or two medium length ones. That's why I put the poll on this chapter; I want to know what you guys would like. Either way, magic fights and battles will be prevalent in the rest of the story so get ready!!**

**P.S.: Reviews are my only current source of food. Please don't let me starve.**

**P.S.S: About the Halloween Castle ep, if you liked that then you'll love the fic "The Last Bite is the Deepest" by jane0904. **


	5. Chapter 5: Fight!

A/N: Here come the magic fights!!! This is the Beta'd Version. I own nothing but the intellectual rights to this specific fanfic. Castle belongs to ABC and The Dresden Files belongs to Jim Butcher.

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The door finally opened. Much to Castle's happiness, it was opened by Michelle. She seemed unharmed, no visible bruising, and she looked like she had just woken up from a nap.

"Rick, I wasn't expecting you. What brings you over here?" Her eyes were darting over Castle and Dresden's figures.

Castle stuck to the dialogue that he and Dresden had worked on when they had walked here. "I was just worried about you. We're working on some case where the victims seem to be people in the magical community. I thought I'd come to check on you since you haven't been answering your phone. If you don't mind my asking, why haven't you? I left several voice mails."

Michelle stared at Castle for a moment before she smiled weakly and raised a hand to adjust a necklace that hung around her neck. "Oh, yes. That silly thing broke on me the other day. I've been meaning to get a new one. I've just been busy."

Castle forced a smile. "We can put a man on the moon but we can't build a cell phone that lasts for more than a year." He chuckled at his joke, but Michelle didn't. Clearing his throat, he continued with the plan. "Well, as long as we're here, would you mind inviting us inside so we can tell you what we know about the killer?"

Michelle began adjusting her necklace again as her eyes dashed back and forth over nothing in particular. Dresden nudged Castle in the back. _Oh, right. Forgot one part._ "I mean unless you have other guests over right now. If you do—"

"No." Michelle's response was sudden. "There is no one else here. I am alone."

Castle couldn't help but notice how Michelle's eyes seemed to look through him. He pushed that from his mind and stuck to the plan. "Then you won't mind if we come in for a while? We'd only be here for five to ten minutes. Just give you a quick run through of what we know."

Michelle fiddled with her necklace as her eyes looked from Castle to Dresden. "Who's he? Why is he here?"

Dresden stepped forward and extended his hand. "I'm Malcolm Reynolds. I'm with the publishing company. We want to make sure Mr. Castle isn't overly distracted as the publishing date approaches." Castle smiled. He had come up with Dresden's fake name. He had actually made it as an alternate identity to go along with his favorite Halloween costume. _It's been a couple years since I've worn that_, _maybe I should bring that back out this year._

Michelle hesitantly shook Dresden's hand. "Well, if it's not going to take too long…all right. Please come inside."

As Michelle turned to lead them into the room, Castle leaned towards Dresden and whispered, "Necklace."

Dresden leaned towards Castle and whispered back, "Ya think?"

"Please excuse the state of my apartment." Michelle called back. "I've been…..busy." The apartment was much like Castle had remembered it, with the exception that most of the furniture was now pushed away from the center of the room and a large circle was inscribed on the wooden floor in chalk. The inside of the circle was a mishmash of half erased symbols and chalk dust. On most of the open counters and surfaces, there were scribbling on pieces of paper. Castle couldn't get a good look at them from where he stood. So he devised a cunning and clever scheme to see what was on those pieces of papers.

"Hey! What's this?" He walked over and picked up a stack. "Doing some research? My office always looks like this when I'm studying up on something." From what he could tell, the markings were similar to what they had seen at the murder scene. He was going to show some of them to Dresden, but Michelle walked over and grabbed the stack back from him, rather forcefully.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't go through my things." Her hand was once again on her necklace. As she moved away to place the stack on her desk by the window, Castle caught Dresden's eyes and nodded toward Michelle and pointed to his neck. Dresden sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry for my client's behavior." Dresden moved towards the couch. "If you would have a seat I'm sure Mr. Castle would be happy to tell you what we know about the case."

Michelle seemed to look off into the distance for a second before responding. "Very well."

The three of them moved to the sitting area of the apartment; Michelle took the love seat, while Castle and Dresden laid claim to a pair of chairs seated next to the small couch.

Castle coughed. "Right, now where to begin? I suppose the beginning is as good as any place." He coughed again. "A few days ago we found a body—" Again, Castle coughed. "I'm sorry; my throat's a little dry. Would you mind if I had a glass of water?"

Michelle didn't look all that happy at the new development, but she hid it well. "No problem, I actually just made tea. If you'd just give me a moment-"

Dresden cut her off as she was moving to stand up. "Please allow me. I'll get the tea while Mr. Castle tells you what's been going on. We'll be out of your way sooner this way." And without giving Michelle time to respond, Dresden was off to the kitchen. Castle began talking to Michelle again, coughing every few sentences. He had just finished giving her the overview of the case when Dresden returned with three cups of steaming liquid in his hands.

"I hope you don't mind that I poured some for all of us. It smelled so good I couldn't help myself." Dresden passed out the cups and took a sip of his. "I must say, this is as good as I had hoped it would be."

Castle followed suit. "Oh wow this is good. Do you blend your own or buy a specific flavor?"

Michelle didn't respond for a few seconds. "Are you sure? This tastes funny to me."

Dresden and Castle looked at each other, then at their tea then took another drink of their tea.

"Mine's good."

"Same here."

Michelle took another few sips of her tea. "I can't explain it, but it just tastes off." She took another drink. "It's like there's Nyquil in it or something."

Castle laughed, "Why would there be Nyquil in your tea? Dresden, did you put any Nyquil in her tea?" Castle started laughing again, this time due to his rhetorical question, but his laughter was cut short when Dresden actually answered.

"Yes."

"What?" both Castle and Michelle asked at the same time.

Dresden didn't say anything; he just stood there and took another sip of tea. Castle was looking between Dresden and Michelle. Michelle looked like she was trying to say something but couldn't quite figure out what she wanted to say.

"Why did you put Nyquil in her—whoa!" Castle suddenly found an asleep Michelle on his lab.

Dresden walked over to Michelle and began to take off her necklace. "The Nyquil was part of a sleeping potion. I've was hoping to use it on the case Murphy and I came from, but we never had to use it. It worked a little faster than I had thought."

"You never said anything about a sleeping potion! You just told me to give you an excuse to get her to drink something….oh know I get it." Castle propped Michelle up against him to help Dresden remove the necklace. "So what was in that potion? Just Nyquil plus magic?"

Dresden undid the small clasp on the necklace and placed it in one of his pockets. "No, potions need seven ingredients to work. One for each of the five senses, one for the mind and one for the soul. This one was Nyquil as a base, feather from a favorite pillow, a yawn after a hard day's work and so on." Dresden stood up, "And now for the fun part." He turned around and faced away from Castle and the sleeping form of Michelle. "I know you're in here. A medallion enthrallment is powerful but has short range. As a Warden of the White Council I demand you stand trial for your actions!"

Castle didn't know what to do with himself. He was juggling three very strong emotions at the moment: relief that Michelle was safe, excitement to see Dresden in a magic throwdown, and fear for himself that he was about to be in the middle of a magical throwdown.

The bedroom door opened. Dresden shook his arm and Castle saw a leather armband slide down toward the wrist. A man walked out of the room. He was about six feet tall and fairly muscular. His sandy dark hair was about shoulder-length. The most noticeable feature about him though, was the fact that he was wearing full-body leather armor. Castle estimated Renaissance design, but all over the armor were runes and symbols that reminded him of Dresden's staff. _What's with these guys and carving runes onto everything they own?_

"Castle." Dresden talked over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off the man in the leather armor, "Take Michelle outside." He gestured toward the door with what seemed to be a large stick that he must have had in his coat. Castle did as he was told, placing one of Michelle's arm over his shoulder, he lifted her off the couch and began to walk her towards the door.

"Take your time." The warlock's voice was deep. "I'll be with you shortly. Can't have you walking around knowing what I look like."

"And _**I**_ can't have you walking around killing people." Dresden's voice had an edge to it. "You've broken at least two Laws of Magic. For that the penalty is death. I'm sure it's a waste of time, but I have to ask you to please surrender yourself and come with me."

Castle had Michelle outside the apartment now; he was heading down the hall. He had to find someplace safe to put Michelle so he could get back and help Dresden. He didn't know what he could do, but he wouldn't just leave Dresden. Their voices became too quiet and murmured to hear as Castle made his way towards the staircase. He took a look at the five flights to the bottom and sighed.

Just then a neighbor opened her door. Without giving her chance to talk, Castle told her that he was with the NYPD and that he needed to hide a hostage until the police got here. The woman immediately agreed and she helped Castle place Michelle on her sofa. Castle instructed her to call the police, and leave a message for Detective Beckett saying that Castle and Dresden had found the murderer and to give her their address. As he left the apartment he heard the woman talking to an officer and relaying the message. Castle made his way back to Michelle's apartment, making sure to stay out of view.

"Well, Warden, it's been fun talking with you. M I ask your name?"

"I am Warden Dresden of the White Council. I have named myself too you Warlock, I now ask for you to name yourself."

The Warlock smiled and gave a half bow. "I am Daniel. I have traveled across the world in my studies of magic and I am familiar with your name. I am honored to be the one who will strike you down."

Castle could hear Dresden snort before saying, "Don't get your hopes up."

Castle tensed outside the door, he has no idea what to expect. It was silent for a couple seconds; then he heard the Warlock grunt. Castle peeked around the corner and saw a circle of light form in front of Dresden as something struck it. The circle disappeared as Dresden raised his staff and shouted "Fuego."

An actual pillar of fire flew out of the end of the rod right at the Warlock. The runes on the Warlocks armor flashed purple for a moment before the air around him took on a purple tone as well. The fire struck the purple air causing it to ripple, but the fire splashed off it. Sparks flew in all direction, but fortunately nothing caught on fire.

"Hah! It'll take more than that to stop me!" With a flick of his arm, the armor of his arm flashing purple, the air shrank into one bright purple spot and shot out towards Dresden like a tentacle of energy.

Dresden brought his shield of blue light up again. "Who says that? Seriously, are you going to grow a pointy mustache also?" The tentacle of energy continued to thrash at Dresden's shield like a whip.

Castle forced himself to look away to try to find some kind of weapon that he could use. He found a decent sized rock with the Eye of Horus carved into it on a table near the door. Ducking into the room Castle grabbed the rock, turned and threw it at the Warlock just as the energy whip snaked under Dresden's shield and swept his feet.

The rock collided with Daniel's arm, knocking him slightly to the side. The energy whip dissolved into the air, and Daniel turned a very angry look at Castle and raised an arm to him. Once again the purple energy appeared out of nowhere and snaked its way towards Castle. The energy had a deep violet shade to it and had the texture of blown glass, despite its ability to move like water. Castle couldn't help but appreciate the beauty of it, right up to the moment that it struck him in the chest.

Even though Castle had never been struck in the chest by a sledgehammer, he was sure that he now knew what that would feel like. He felt an impact on his back, and realized that he had been thrown against the wall from the impact. Castle couldn't breathe, his chest felt like it was on fire and he had seriously pissed off a murderer. Alexis wasn't going to be happy with him when he got home. _If I get home_, he thought bleakly.

"Castle!" Dresden's voice filtered in past the beat of blood in Castle's ears. He was having a hard time focusing on any one particular thing, but he could make out Dresden standing up, shooting several more of those fire pillars at the Warlock and brought his shield up in front of himself and Castle. The Warlock once again started his onslaught with the energy whip.

"You shouldn't have underestimated me, Warden!" His armor flashed again and two more tentacles of energy appeared and joined in the onslaught against Dresden's shield.

"Dammit! Why is nothing ever easy for me?" Dresden looked like he was having a hard time keeping his shield up, and if each hit was as strong as what Castle had been hit by, he wasn't surprised. This time Dresden had made the shield go from the floor to the ceiling and in a semi circle to either side totally isolating them from the attack.

Castle forced a breath into his lungs; it felt like ice water being poured onto the fire in his lungs, but at the same time if felt like he was being stabbed with knives. He figured he must have broken a rib or two. He hated feeling useless, and there was no way that he was going to have Alexis grow up without her father. He saw a handle of a gun sticking out of one of the pockets in Dresden's coat; forcing another breath into his lungs, he went for it. What he pulled out was the biggest handgun that Castle had ever seen.

Dresden 's hand shot out and grabbed the barrel of the gun and tried to pull it out of Castle's grip. "Stay down. You can barely breathe, you think you can shoot?"

Castle was in fact barely able to breath, so instead of arguing he forced the entirety his argument into a hard glare. Not many people knew it, but Castle had spent a considerable amount of time at firing ranges and training with police officers in order to accurately portray what it would be like for Derrick Storm to shoot. As a result, he had become a rather good shot.

Dresden must have understood that Castle wasn't going to just sit there and do nothing. He let go of the .44 magnum and held up three fingers. He dropped one finger; Castle lifted the gun and pointed it at the Warlock. Dresden dropped another finger; Castle forced another breath into his lungs and thumbed back the hammer. Dresden dropped the final finger and with a push of his arm, sent the shield flying at Daniel. This seemed to catch him off guard, but he twisted at the waist and shoved that attack to the side. When the Warlock focused again on his prey, he saw the one that he had knocked down aiming a very large gun at his head.

Castle saw the fear creep into the Warlock's eyes and that made him smirk despite the pain he was still in. He wanted to say something witty, smart and masculine before blowing this guy away, so he mustered what little breath he had and as he pulled the trigger grunted out, "Bwah."

The Warlock's armor had flashed just as Castle pulled the trigger, and his arms had been brought up in front of his face. The air around the Warlock had just begun to take on that purple tone, when the bullets struck the weak shield. The purple air stretched towards his face in several spots and Castle was sure that was where the bullets were striking. Beside him, Dresden made a punching motion in the direction of the Warlock.

Suddenly, the purple air buckled in the middle, shattered and the Warlock went flying through the window. As his body went flying through the air over the street below, his armor once again flashed purple, and a tentacle of energy flew from his arm to the roof on the other side of the street. His fall stopped and he held himself away from the building, the tentacle now acting like a solid support beam.

He pointed towards Dresden and shouted, "This isn't over, Warden! We'll meet again, and when we do you shall pay!" Castle couldn't help but wonder if some of these people were issued 'The Super Villain's Quote Book' or something. Before he could dwell on the issue any longer, another tentacle appeared on the other arm and the Warlock swung away, looking far too much like a medieval Spiderman.

Dresden plopped down next to Castle. "I think that guy watched way too many Saturday morning cartoons."

Castle tried to laugh, but was still having a hard time breathing. Dresden extended a hand towards Castle. "You know, I don't technically have a permit for that so if you don't mind…"

Castle managed to cough and handed the magnum back to Dresden, who slipped it back into his pocket, then patted Castle on the back. "Not bad for your first Wizard fight. Where's Michelle?"

Castle's breath had partially returned to him at this point. "Down…hall….neighbor."

Police sirens could be heard outside through the broken window. "I'm guessing that you told the neighbor to call the cops?" Castle nodded his head.

Again Dresden patted Castle on the back, "Smart man. If I didn't—whoa! I think you're bleeding!"

Castle looked down and saw that a red circle of liquid now stained his navy shirt around where he had been hit. Outside the sounds of a car screeching to a stop could be heard. Castle placed his hand over the liquid; it was too cold to be blood, and when he pulled his hand away it was too bright. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a now shattered red pen. He held up the pen for Dresden to see and the two of them shared a good laugh, despite Castle's being riddled with coughs and his chest felling like hell.

Footsteps raced up the staircase and came down the hall towards the apartment. When they entered, they were revealed to belong to Detective Beckett and Sergeant Murphy. They each took in the scene around them before looking to the two men sitting on the floor in the corner. Beckett's eyes were drawn to the red stain on Castle's shirt.

"Castle!" She rushed to his side, taking out her phone she called an ambulance silencing any protest that came from either Castle or Dresden. Murphy had gone over to Dresden and helped him up while Beckett was tending to Castle.

Beckett put her phone away and took one of Castle's hands in hers. "Don't worry, help's on the way. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Everything's going to be fine. "

Castle coughed a few times. "Beckett, I just—"

"Don't speak." Beckett cut him off. "Save your energy, you'll make it through this. Just don't give up." Castle could see fear so clearly in her eyes. Fear mixed with something else that he couldn't quite place, despite it seeming so familiar.

"Um, Detective Beckett?" Dresden's voice broke the moment.

"What!?" Beckett replied, turning around to look at Dresden but not letting up in her iron grip of Castle's hand.

"His red pen broke."

"What?"

"Look."

Beckett turned back to Castle to see him holding a broken red pen, covered in ink, in the hand that she wasn't holding. He proceeded to put the broken pen into his pocket in the center of the stain. Beckett stared for a second before realization dawned on her.

"Oh……oh!" Letting go of his hand, she quickly stood up. Turning around, she saw a Dresden and Murphy that were doing their very best not to laugh. When she turned back to Castle, he could see that she was now as red as his broken pen. He couldn't help but smirk, and it was most likely his most obnoxious yet.

"Detective, I have the scene under control if you'd like to head down the hallway to room 508 and check on Michelle and get a statement from the tenant." Murphy saved Beckett from what was certainly extreme humiliation.

"Oh, um, I, um, yes. Yes, I'll do that. Thank you." And with that, Detective Beckett quickly left the room. About five seconds after she had left, Sergeant Murphy looked to Dresden, and he nodded. She made her way over to where Castle was recovering.

"Mr. Castle, we need to have a talk." She proceeded to explain what she did in Chicago, how her unit often dealt with things from the magical world and how they cleaned up reports and statement to have everything make sense. It made sense to Castle; if he were to tell the truth and stick by it, he'd be considered crazy. He'd most likely lose his position with the NYPD tailing Beckett and his writing career would be in trouble. So Murphy and Dresden both helped him alter the story to fit what Dresden was going to say.

By the time Castle had his cover story memorized, Ryan and Esposito had arrived, Beckett had regained her composure and they were all going over the scene. She wasn't happy that Dresden and Castle had decided to engage the murderer without police backup. Dresden and Castle assured her that they did not know that he would be there, they were just following up on a witness's statement. Beckett and Murphy took statements from both Castle and Dresden.

"So then he just swung away like Spiderman? Castle, you can't expect me to believe that load of sh-"

"Hey boss," Ryan came into the apartment, "I got three people outside who swear they saw the guy escape like Spiderman. They said he just came crashing out the window then swung away on some kind of device."

Beckett turned back to Castle. "You never said anything about a device."

"Well what else would he have used? Magic?" At that Beckett rolled her eyes and walked over to Ryan.

Dresden was now going through all the notes that had been left around and taking notes himself. The ambulance for Castle had arrived; he was brought down and examined. He had been right, he had broken one rib and bruised two others. The EMTs gave him a very strict talk about what he could and could not do, gave him some pills then went up to get Michelle. She had woken up about a half hour after Dresden's sleeping potion had knocked her out. She couldn't remember anything in particular from the past three days, except a meeting she had with a man named Daniel Kazicky and the medics attributed that to her brain forcing itself to forget a traumatic experience.

Back in the apartment Dresden had finished his first look through of the notes. Beckett was beside him at once. "So what did he think killing these people would accomplish?"

Dresden flipped through his own notes,. "Well, I hate to say it, but it looks like he plans on performing a rite of ascension. Very dangerous."

"Uh-huh, and in your wonderful land of magic what does that mean?"

Murphy stepped forward, "You explained this to me once, that zoo case I think. You said it was like some kind of huge power up?"

Dresden nodded, "Essentially, but this is different from that case. This one seems to be based on binding one's soul to that of a demon. That's why he's been absorbing the souls of his victims; he needs a lot of soul energy to pull this off, even for a weak demon."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "So how do we catch him? Is he going to try to kill again? I need all I can get on this guy so I can put him away."

Dresden shuffled through the papers and pulled out one. "Well, if he's following what he has here, he'll need a third and final sacrifice to activate the ceremony. This," he dug through more papers until he found a traveler's map of New York, "looks like he's marked a couple locations for where this will take place. This spot here," he pointed to one of the circles on the map, "is where he committed the murder that you found. That leaves these three others as to where he might show up. If we just watch one of these places we should get him."

Beckett seemed very happy with this information. "Do you have a timetable for when this guy's going to summon the Devil?"

Dresden shuffled through more papers. "Well, no and yes. No, he's not summoning the Devil, just a Demon. Although I wouldn't be surprised if whoever he's trying to summon has claimed to be the Devil, it's a common lie. But as for the timetable….it looks like….according to this….it has to happen under a full moon."

Castle tried to check the lunar calendar on his cell phone, but was surprised to find it fried.

Dresden held up another piece of paper. It was a calendar with today's date circled. "It's tonight."

"Detective Beckett," Murphy stepped forward. "I do believe that Mr. Kazicky thinks he's going to get away with another murder."

Beckett took out her phone to organize the search. "Well, he's dead wrong."

* * *

A/N: next chapter is last chapter! I was watching CSI: Miami while finishing this chapter so that's why Beckett's channeling a little Horatio. (Almost had her put on sunglasses)

NEW: Sorry It's taking me so long to update the last chapter. School work is killing me. I am working on it and I will not give up on this story.

Please review!!!


	6. Chapter 6: Denouement

**A/N: Well, this is over four months since I had intended on finishing this story. I can't even begin to explain why it took me so long to post this chapter. Let me just say that I am sorry, and glad that the past 4 months are over. This is the LAST chapter! I will be returning to my other fic "Whale of a Time" after this, I've had some other fics in the wings waiting to get started (Firefly, SG:A and Keen Eddie) but I really like this genera and I'll be making at least one more. Un-Beta'd**

**Standard Disclaimers apply. **

It had been about two hours since Castle and Dresden had left Michelle's apartment. They had decided to split into three groups, one watching each location. Ryan and Esposito were together as per the usual, but today Castle and Beckett were not paired together. The captain had decided to keep the teams watching the locations small so that they wouldn't spook Daniel.

"What do you mean I can't be with you?" Castle whined. "I know what this guy looks like! I can identify him!"

"We got a clear picture of him off a surveillance camera from across the street, don't worry." Beckett was trying to be reasonable with him, Castle knew it. But he still wanted to be there if anything happened to her. "Besides," Beckett continued. "What do you think you'll be able to do in the shape you're in?"

Castle unconsciously stood a little straighter as he rubbed his hands across his broken and bruised ribs. That act alone made him flinch, but his pride wouldn't allow him to admit the pain was a problem. "I'm fine! So he got me with a sucker punch, you're just going to sideline me for that?" Castle was sure Beckett wasn't going to take him out of the game, she had pulled him out into the hallway to the staircase, she had some kind of plan in store for him.

Beckett took a breath and adjusted a loose strain of her hair before starting. "I'm not sidelining you. I need you to keep an eye on that Dresden guy. I know he's on our side, but he's not a cop and I've had a weird feeling about him ever since I laid eyes on him. I need you to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid while I stay with Sergeant Murphy. And before you suggest it, I need Ryan and Esposito to stay together. For some reason, when those two work together they get results. Can I trust you to not be stupid and get yourself hurt worse and to keep him in line?"

Castle smiled. If she was going to be with Murphy he was sure she's be safe. He remembered what she did to that thug in the station.. "All right. I'll keep an eye on him."

Beckett smiled. "Good. The two of you are going to be with Officer Washburn. You'll all be in an unmarked van watching the third location, by the waterfront."

Castle nodded in agreement. "No problem. Just be careful O.K.?"

Beckett smirked at him as she walked past him back to the apartment. She stopped about halfway to the door, turned to Castle and looked him in the eyes. "You too. I don't want a repeat of this afternoon."

The sun had set about ten minutes ago.

"—and it just drilled the guy into the ground!" Castle and Officer Washburne both started laughing. They were laughing so hard that Castle's ribs started hurting. This only served to make Washburn and Dresden laugh harder.

"So-so let me get this straight: you killed a guy by dropping a turkey on him?"

Dresden leaned back into his chair, "Long story short, yep. Technically speaking, I just re-directed the entropy curse."

Castle was about to start a very interesting story from his first marriage involving clowns, balloon animals, and restraining orders when the radio crackled to life.

"Dresden," Beckett's voice came from the dash mounted radio. "Are we sure these are the right places? It's been hours since we last saw him, how do we know he hasn't already killed the next person?"

Officer Washburne grabbed the radio microphone from between his toy Stegosaurus and several plastic palm trees that were scattered across the dash board and handed it back to Dresden. Dresden grabbed the mic and everyone in the van was treated to screaming feedback. When it settled down me slowly spoke into the mic.

"He has to wait until the sun has set. The rising and setting of the sun has a significant effect on the energies of magic. The rising of the sun more-so than the setting, but there would be an—"

"Fascinating, " Beckett's didn't sound too excited, "So he should be at one of these locations soon?"

Dresden glanced out the window at the full moon that was now visible in the sky. "Yeah, the moon's out now so everything's ready. However, he does have till sunup to do this. He can be here anywhere from now till about an hour before sunrise to perform the ritual."

Castle could hear Beckett sigh over the radio. "Wonderful. Keep your eyes open, radio if you see anything. Beckett out."

Dresden made to respond, but was rewarded with another bout of feedback and let tossed the mic into the front of the van.

Castle picked up the mic and hung it back on it's place on the radio unit. "So, do you think he's going to wait it out a while or is he gonna show up soon?"

Dresden rubbed his eyes, "I think he's gonna show up soon. This guys been working on this rite for months. I'd be pretty antsy to get it over with if it were me."

Officer Washburne turned in his seat to face Dresden, "So why haven't you ever tried one of these rite thingies? Sound to me like if you got the kind of power boost it offers, you wouldn't always be half dead."

Dresden shifted in his seat. Castle had a flashback to his Soulgaze with Dresden, there was the desire for power within him. Despite Dresden's efforts to keep it at the back of his mind, it was always nagging at him. Dresden took the glove off his left hand, it looked like he had patches of skin ripped off a while ago and it was still re-growing.

Dresden spoke with a far away voice. "I've been tempted to before."

It was obvious that it was a touchy subject, but Castle couldn't stop the words from leaving his mouth, "Why didn't you?"

Dresden looked up at Castle and Washburne, put the glove back on his hand and answered in his normal voice, "It wasn't worth it. There's no free way to gain power except to earn it yourself. There are things out there that you can use to cheat: rites of ascension, talismans, potions, spells, the list goes on and on. But none of them are truly free, they always require some kind of sacrifice."

Castle nodded. He could understand the temptation of power, especially if it meant being able to protect his own friends and family. But he wouldn't kill innocent people to be able to do that.

Officer Washburne nodded along with Castle before suddenly clapping his hand together, "Well, I'm going to lighten the situation with a hilarious story. It's about the first time I met my wife. So there I was- undercover in a carnival, I had this little side show where I did these shadow puppets—"

"Target spotted at sight two!" The radio crackled with Beckett's voice. "All units move to sight two to apprehend. "

"Hold on boss." Ryan's voice came over the radio. "We've got a sighting here at sight three also. Can you guys confirm that you've got the right guy?"

As Beckett and Ryan went back and forth describing what sounded to be like the same person at both sites, Castle saw Daniel walking towards the abandoned building in front of them. "Uh, I got a visual on the target here also."

"Castle, are you sure?" Beckett's now upset voice came over the radio.

"He broke one of my ribs and tried to kill me! I know what this guy looks like."

The radio was silent for a second before Beckett's voice came back. "He's trying to play with us. Try to get closer and confirm the identity of your sightings and report on radio what you've got. Oh, and Castle, you stay in the van. Beckett Out."

Washburne laughed, "All righty. Dresden, I want you to come with me and confirm his identity. Stay behind me. Castle stays in the van."

Castle turned in his seat, a little faster than his ribs liked, "Ugh, why do I have to stay here? Another pair of eyes can't hurt."

Dresden poked Castle in the side causing him to wince in pain. "THAT'S why you need to stay in the van." Dresden opened the side door and moved to the front of the van.

Washburne gave Castle an apologetic look as he opened his door. "I'll tell you what, if it's him then I'll give you a thumbs up and you can radio Beckett."

Castle usually loved getting pity, but this was patronizing "Thanks. You're too kind."

Castle watched as Dresden followed Washburne towards the entrance that they had seen Daniel enter through. Castle idly picked up a dinosaur and twirled it around his fingers, a slight whine from the radio the only noise. As Dresden and Washburne neared the door, the whine on the radio spiked to an ear piercing screech then stopped as the radio sputtered out a few sparks and died. Castle just stared at the radio for a while not knowing what to think. Looking up to Dresden and Washburne, Castle saw them on either side of the door, making gestures on what would happen and how they would enter.

Then Castle remembered what Dresden had told him about how magic affects technology. Had a trap been laid for them? He didn't know what was going on, but he was sure that Dresden should be told. Castle looked up just in time to see Dresden open the door and Washburne take one step into the building. Suddenly, Washburne was thrown back when what looked like an over sized spear slammed into his chest. Washburne was carried off his feet and send flying back about five feet, his body coming off the tip of the spear. Dresden had jumped back and had taken a few steps toward the motionless Officer Washburne when the wielder of the spear walked through the door.

The man was five feet tall, toned and lean grey muscles covered his body. He wore only what looked to be leather pants that were torn and tattered beneath the thigh. His hair was bunched into black dreadlocks that made is just past his shoulders. Black tattoos covered his body from his exposed legs to his face. _His face_. Castle had never seen anyone with a face like his, where his nose should have been there was a snout. Even though Castle was over 50 feet away, he could make out the row of sharp blood red teeth behind his snarling appearance.

_He's not Human._ That thought echoed though Castle's mind and left him unable to move. The revelation of magic hadn't been too big of a surprise to him, he had thought it was cool. He had heard Dresden talk about Werewolves and Vampires, so it wasn't like he didn't know that there were monsters out there. But to actually see one? He hadn't been prepared for that. It was nothing like the movies, even looking at this creature made him want to turn and run the other way.

By the time Castle had snapped out of his trance, Dresden had managed to move the downed officer several feet from the door towards the van, though currently the creature was wailing against Dresden's shield as he stood over the lifeless body of Officer Washburne. Every now and again, Dresden would fire a quick burst of fire at the creature, but none of the shots hit home. The creature would stab with its spear, jump over the shield and attack from the other side never staying still long enough for Dresden to line up a shot.

_Think-think-think, what the hell can I do?_ Castle took a quick account of what he had available to him. His arsenal included broken radio, three plastic dinosaurs, a dead cell phone, the keys to the van, a broken rib and his wits. Nothing was coming to him, he cursed his idealess mind. If he didn't get a plan, he was dead the second he got out of the van to help Dresden. Then castle realized: he was in a van.

With a nervous smile now on his face, Castle moved into the driver's seat and started the engine. He flashed the lights once, and saw that Dresden had seen it. Castle floored the accelerator and drove right for a spot about ten feet from Dresden. Just as the creature was about to jump again, Dresden expanded his shield and threw the creature back. It landed right in Castle's path on its back and roared in anger as it started standing up. Castle laid on the horn and turned on the headlights. The sudden noise and bright light stopped the creature from standing up as it tried to figure out what was barreling towards it. Castle felt the entire van shake as if he had hit an elephant when he drove over the creature. Slamming on the brakes, Castle brought the van to a rest. Castle's heart was thundering behind his broken ribs and he felt the increasingly familiar sensation of adrenaline pumping through his system. In the rear view mirror he saw Dresden impale the creature with its own spear where it lay.

Castle had just helped to kill a monster.

He had never taken a life before, well not a human life. He was contemplating just what this meant. He had always had an open mind to the possibility of the supernatural, but he had always had an image in his mind of the kind of monsters you'd find in a Scooby-Doo episode. What he had just seen shattered that image. These monsters weren't just around to scare and make empty threats; these creatures would and can kill you without a second thought.

Castle was shaken from his trance by a hard shove of his shoulder. It ached a little in his chest, but nothing those pain pills couldn't cover up. When he turned, he saw Dresden looking at him. "Hey, you all right?"

Castle actually had to think about it. "Yeah. I will be….I will be."

Dresden gave Castle a knowing smile. "You're tougher than you look Castle. Don't worry though; first times are always a bit of a shock." Dresden conspiratorially looked around before continuing. "You should have seen Beckett after her first time. Ha! She could barely form a sentence."

That actually did help Castle feel a little better about the whole thing. "How's Officer Washburne?"

Dresden looked over the hood of the van to where the body lay. "Looks like he's still sleeping, might have a bruised rib or two."

"What?" Castle was sure he had seen him run through. "He's alive?"

Dresden gave castle a confused look. "Uh, yeah. Kevlar vest stopped the spear from breaking skin. After I killed the Orc I went over and checked on him. I gave you a thumbs up and everything, didn't you see that?"

"No." Castle shook his head, a weight being lifted off his conscience. "No I had….other things on my mind. So, Orc huh?"

"Yep. Nasty suckers. Murphy had to deal with a Troll for her first. Um, you know you can get out of the van now. And your nose is bleeding."

Castle wiped a hand under his nose and turned it over to reveal blood. Castle looked from his hand to his shirt which also had blood on it. "I'm gonna have to change my shirt again. I think I'll just stay in the van for now. "

Dresden hit the hood of the van with his staff and the entire vehicle shook. "I think you're safer out of the van. Besides, anything worth summoning can tear this thing apart like aluminum foil. "

With that happy bit of information in his mind, Castle unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the van. He took a deep breath and walked to the back of the van. He was fairly startled to not see a body, just a small pile of goo with a spear laying in the middle.

"What happened to the…the..." Castle began, but was still slightly overcome by the situation. Luckily, Dresden understood what he was trying to get at.

"Orc. Since it was summoned here, when you killed it, it was forced back to the NeverNever. It's hard to explain where and what that is exactly, so let's just say it's a parallel world made up of magical things. When something is summoned to our world it takes on magic and ectoplasm to take a solid form. When you destroy the magic holding it together it falls apart back to the ectoplasm. This stuff will evaporate and be gone in a couple minutes."

Castle couldn't help but reach down and touch the ectoplasm. It was about as thick as syrup, but as he rubbed it between his fingers it did indeed evaporate leaving his hands totally dry. So many questions began to form in Castle's mind about creatures, summoning, the NeverNever that he couldn't keep track of all of them. He never got a chance to ask any of them though, as Dresden grabbed him by the arm and began to lead him to where Officer Washburne lay.

"Hey! No need to be so ruff." Castle complained as he allowed himself to be led.

Dresden loosened his grip of Castle's arm. "There's one important thing you should know about Orcs, they always work in pairs."

Castle's head snapped up, "What?"

Dresden didn't slow his pace. "Sush. Now listen closely, my Wizard senses tell me that he's on the roof behind us. He's going to try to take you out first because you killed his brother. I'm going to use you as a distraction to lure him out then strike when he's focused on you. We're going to have to do this quick because Daniel's getting ready to start the rite."

Castle's voice raised slightly in pitch. "Why do I have—" Dresden clapped a hand over Castle's mouth and held a finger over his lips before removing the hand. Castle began again in a stage whisper, "Why do I have to be the bait? What about Washburne? And last time you could barely hold him at bay!"

Dresden let go of Castle's arm as they reached Washburne's body. "Don't worry. I'm done playing nice." Before Castle could protest any further with Dresden reached down and touched Washburne's neck. After a few seconds he hung his head, slowly stood up, winked at Castle and said rather loudly "He's dead."

Castle understood. "Damn." Raising his voice a little he added. "At least we got him."

Dresden nodded. "Yeah. Why don't you go check to see if the radio in the van's still working."

Castle's stomach dropped. It was time to be the bait. Unable to say anything he just nodded and turned and slowly started to walk toward the van. Halfway back he turned and looked back at Dresden. Castle's stomach dropped further, Dresden wasn't even looking at Castle. He was facing Washburne's body just staring into the night sky. Continuing on, Castle made it to the van, trying not to look like he was scared out of his mind.

As he approached the car, Castle could feel predatory eyes on him. He couldn't explain it, it was something he'd never felt before and he didn't want to feel it ever again. Castle fought back the urge to turn and run for his life and opened the passenger side door. The inside of the van was a mess, the surveillance equipment in the back was scattered all over, with the occasional plastic dinosaur or palm tree among the mess. Castle twisted the rear view mirror so he could see Dresden; Castle saw that Dresden was still facing away from the van.

_Any time now would be nice._ Castle didn't know how much longer he'd let himself stay out in the open. He was about to say something to Dresden, when he heard it. Castle had no idea what to classify the sound he heard as. It was some kind of a cross between a human scream and an animal roar. He jerked his head out of the van to look up at the source of the sound and what he saw froze the blood in his veins and made time seem to stop.

Falling from the rooftop was the second orc with a club the size of guitar case. He seemed to be hanging in mid air just a few feet below the rooftop, four stories up. His club was held over his head with both hands, his mouth open still producing that terror invoking battle cry. His hair was longer than the first orc and as he was falling it was spread out around his head, like an octopus with too many tentacles lashing out in attack. And the eyes, they burned like the sun with an almost tangible desire to kill. Castle was unable to think, unable to move. He didn't think about death, his family or even himself because all of his senses were sending and receiving only one signal.

Terror.

Nothing else in the world existed for Castle in that brief moment, only complete and utter terror.

Then the frozen moment shattered and reality came crashing back full force. The orc was no longer falling, he was suddenly thrown against the building wall as if hit by an invisible car. The dropped club crashed onto the hood of the van, mere inches in front of Castle's face, buckling the roof to the floor. Castle's barely even recognized it happening, he could only stare at what just a second ago had filled him with more fear than he ever thought a person could feel.

The orc was pressed against the wall which now had a body shaped indent by some invisible force. Looking around, he saw Dresden pointing his staff at the orc. He noticed that the runes on the end of the staff were glowing and that Dresden's mouth was moving. It took Castle several second to realize that Dresden was calling his name.

"Castle! Are. You. OK?" Dresden shouted for the um-teenth time.

"Physically." Castle looked back to the orc pinned three stories up. "I don't have another van to run this one over with so how're you going to finish him off?"

Dresden smirked, "Definitively." Dresden pointed towards the van, and with a flourish of his wrist the first orc's spear floated over to him. As it came closer, Dresden closed his hand into a fist and the floating spear took aim at the orc pinned to the wall.

Regarding the orc for a moment, Dresden spoke. "Normally I like to say one last zinger before the final blow, but you know what?" With a flick of his index finger, Dresden sent the spear hurdling through the air right between the orc's eyes.

"You're not worth the time." The orc went limp and within a few seconds the body began to return to ectoplasm. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Somehow, Castle had brought himself to walk over to where Dresden was standing. He could just make out the sounds of sirens approaching.

" Sounds like Beckett's on her way." Castle gently rubbed his bruised ribs as he surveyed the scene around him. The van was destroyed, Officer Washburne was still out cold, there was still a pile of goo behind the van and a new one under where a spear was sticking out from the brick side of the building. He was never going to be able to explain this; Beckett was going to kill him.

"Then I have to be fast about this." Dresden and castle turned to face each other. "Rick, I'm going to need you to stay out here with Washburne till the NYPD gets here and then stall them. This is a fight for wizards, not humans."

As Dresden started to jog over to the building's door Castle yelled, "How the hell am I going to explain this? I can make something up fine for Washburne, but what about the van?"

Dresden shouted over his shoulder, "Tell them he threw a grenade at us."

"The van looks like it had another van dropped on it! Not like it was bombed!" Castle argued.

Dresden turned to the van, pulled out a rod with runes on it and pointed it at the van. "_Fuego voncanis"_

The runes on the rod began to give off a light red color as motes of energy appeared out of thin air a rushed to a point at the end of the rod. A ball of fire the size of a baseball formed in half a second then shot out at the van. When the fireball connected with the van, it exploded. The crumpled van was torn almost in half and Castle felt the percussion in his bruised ribs over 50 feet away. He was sure everyone in half a mile heard the blast.

Dresden was at the door to the building, "Maybe two grenades." As Dresden reached for the door handle, the ground next to him started to….bubble. That was the only word Castle could think of to describe what the gravel was doing; it looked like water that was violently boiling. The gravel began to rise from the ground into a general pillar shape that came to Dresden's chest and was a little thicker than he was. After half a second the gravel receded back to the ground leaving in its place a man in a grey hat, suit coat and cloak. Castle was sure he felt his jaw hit the ground.

As the man looked around Castle was able to see his emerald tie and walking staff. "It seems I've missed some of tonight's program."

Dresden quickly shook hands. "Only the pre-show Vincent, the main event is just about to start."

The Warden rapped his cane on the ground twice. "Splendid. Let's get on with it then." He opened the door to the building. "I'm sure this won't be too much of a chore."

Dresden shook his head and followed him into the building.

Castle was left by himself.

He walked over next to the sleeping body of Officer Washburne and sat down, an act that Castle found remarkably enjoyable. The sirens sounded like they were within the block. Castle only found himself waiting for another 15-20 seconds before three squad cars came rushing around the turn into the building area. Tires squealed as the cars stopped. Beckett and Murphy were the first out. Beckett had a look of astonishment and anger on her face, Murphy just looked annoyed.

When Beckett's eyes found Castle, more anger crept into her features. "What in the he-"

"Not now!" Castle interrupted, "Washburne needs an ambulance. I think he broke a few ribs."

Murphy had an officer in one of the other cars call for the ambulance. Murphy, Beckett and the other two officers made their way over to Castle.

Beckett repeated her earlier question after the other two officers confirmed that Washburne wasn't in a life threatening state. "What happened here? And what happened to you? Do you need an ambulance also?"

"I'm fine, it's just a nosebleed. But what happened here? Well, short version: it was a trap. He'd set up-"

Castle was interrupted by half the lights on the police cars exploding and everyone's walkie talkies letting out a nails-on-chalkboard screech then dying in a puff of smoke. Beckett's cell phone let off some sparks. Everyone was looking at the cars and at each other in confusion asking each what had happened, but Castle noticed that only Murphy had turned to look at the building. Just as Castle followed suit, a giant purple tentacle shot through the roof of the building only to come crashing back down. The sudden noise grabbed everyone's attention, and the sounds of gunshots got everyone moving. Murphy and another officer picked up Washburne and hid him behind the nearest cop car, while Beckett and Castle ran to cover behind another one. It sounded like the building was being demolished from the inside by men with wrecking balls. Fire could be seen occasionally through the windows.

Five minutes hadn't yet passed; Beckett and Murphy were still trying to make sense of the situation, when Castle noticed that the ground was rumbling. It started lightly, like cars driving over a bridge, but it was now at the point where it felt like he was standing on an unbalanced washing machine. Then it stopped and all the windows of the building shattered. A wall facing away from Castle's position was split in half by a crack, half the roof fell down and a rock spire crashed through another wall. A split second later a deafening roar was let out from inside the building.

Everyone had been frozen where they stood when they heard the roar. The silence after the roar seemed to be too quiet to everyone's ears. It almost sounded like a gunshot to Castle when Murphy asked him where Dresden was. Before he could answer, more noise came from the building. This time is sounded like a roaring river made of fire. It had all the sounds of rapids, but also the crackling sounds of fire. The front door was thrown open and a figure ran out carrying something. As he turned, the glow of fire from the building illuminated the figure and revealed it to be Dresden with a body in a fireman's carry.

Dresden ran towards the police cars as fast as he could while carrying a body. "It's gonna blow! Take cover!" Despite his warnings, Murphy ran from behind the cover of the police cars to help Dresden carry the body to cover. No sooner had Dresden and Murphy gotten the body behind the same car as Castle and Beckett that the explosion happened. Castle didn't get a chance to see the explosion itself, but he heard it and felt it. Even behind the squad car, the shockwave found his broken ribs. Despite his pain he had managed to grab hold of Beckett in an attempt to help shied her from the blast. After the blast had passed, Castle gave Beckett a little shake to get her attention only to feel her do the same to him.

"Are you OK?" The question had left each of their lips at the same time. Despite his pain, Castle couldn't help but smile and give a quick nod. Beckett gave a quick nod of her own as well. Leaning back against the squad car Castle closed his eyes. He was at the end of his rope for the day, the pain medication had worn off a while ago, the pain from his ribs was back in full force, he was tired and exhausted and he wanted nothing more than to sleep.

Castle found Beckett's hand and gave it a squeeze. Without opening his eyes he knew she was looking at him. "Beckett, I'm going to pass out now." And he did. The symphony of sirens from police, ambulances and fire engines that accompanied the current flurry of movement and voices following the explosion faded into the background as Castle slipped into unconsciousness.

Beckett was at her desk. She had been at her desk for over an entire day. She wished she could go home, but the amount of paperwork that the fallout this case provided had prevented that. She didn't like to swear, but the only word that she could use to describe the station right now was "Shit-storm."

The police had been working with the fire department, bomb squad and the city gas services to try to figure out what had caused the explosion. Where the warehouse once stood, there was now a large piled of charred rubble and a slight crater. The damage seemed to be too extensive to be the result of a gas line break, but the bomb squad couldn't find any trace of an explosive device or substance. However, after a nearly 24 hour investigation into the explosion, it had been ruled as a catastrophic gas line malfunction. The only thing that they were able to find at the scene was a severed arm in leather armor. It was assumed to belong to the murderer, Daniel Kazicky. No one had any idea how it so cleanly severed and there was no other evidence that he had ever been there, but it was sent to the lab for a DNA analysis anyway.

She hated to admit it, but Castle had been a huge help in getting the paperwork done. Beckett had one of the many ambulances that had arrived to the scene give Castle a thorough evaluation. Despite her insistence that he spend the night in the hospital, the EMTs said he needed nothing more than bed rest. He had woken up an hour after he passed out to find that Beckett had called his mother so that she could take him home. He wasn't willing to leave at first, but the threat of being permanently relocated to the break room was enough to get him to go home. He spent the next day mostly on his cell phone pulling strings and calling in favors in order to keep any blame off the police and to get lab tests pushed to the top of the pile.

The woman that Dresden had carried out of the building was Janet Graceman. She had cuts on her body identical to the previous victims and was suffering from severe blood loss. She spent four hours in surgery before she died and became the third official victim.

Officer Washburne was in the hospital with 3 broken ribs and a punctured lung. According to doctors he was going to make a full recovery.

Sergeant Murphy and Mr. Dresden had given their statements and filled out the necessary paperwork. Beckett still wasn't sure how she felt about Dresden. Washburne's statement about how they were attacked matched Dresden's, Castle stood up for him, Sergeant Murphy trusted him without question and Beckett couldn't prove that he had done anything illegal so for now she kept her feelings to herself. She found herself looking over at the self proclaimed wizard. He was sitting in the break room scribbling in a notebook with the pictures from Michelle's apartment and the new ones of the severed arm.

Her thoughts of Dresden were pushed to the side when she saw Castle give Dresden a cup of coffee. Thoughts of Dresden and the oddness about him turned to thoughts of Castle in Michelle's apartment looking like he had just been shot. Beckett thought she was going to lose him there. She had been so worried for him. She hated to admit it, but he did mean a lot to her. Perhaps more than she would ever admit.

She shook her head to break the chain of thoughts, "_This isn't the place for this. Not now. Need to finish the paperwork."_ Focusing back on her computer screen, she returned to finishing the last of the mountain of paperwork needed to finish the case.

Castle handed the cup of coffee to Dresden, who accepted it with tired eyes and a muttering of thanks. Dresden took a moment to enjoy the coffee before setting it down and returned to writing in the notebook. Castle settled down into a chair at the paper strewn table to the side of Dresden.

Normally, Castle would have launched right into all the questions that he wanted to ask Dresden, but he was exhausted. He'd never thought that he could talk so much that he wouldn't want to. He'd read entire books out loud at press rallies for his books before, but that paled in comparison to what he had gone through in the past day and a half. For most of the day he had been in the break room, his cell phone tethered to the wall by its charging cable. Not to mention that the pain medicine he was on was making him feel like he had couple beers in him.

Castle spend a few seconds before deciding that he's ask something that had been bothering him since he woke up in the hospital. "Is it over?"

Dresden's pen paused mid stroke. He set the pen down and took a deep breath before answering. "Time will tell. I'd like to think that he died in that explosion, but this arm makes me think he got away."

"How?"

"Well, here's what I think happened. Vincent and I got inside just as Daniel started the Rite. The Demon was summoned and began to bind his power to Daniel. But that binding takes time, the power has to flow into the host through the victim like water through a pipe. We started to fight and his magic was in a state of flux which was why he had those giant tentacles, but it also made him fairly sloppy. Vincent broke the circle and I grabbed the girl, which effectively blocked the flow of magic. But since the Rite had started, the energy had to go somewhere, so it kept bottling up until it ruptured the 'pipe' and exploded."

"Do you think he shielded himself from that blast somehow?"

"I don't think I could have even at my full power. This is just a guess, but I think he managed to open a way to the Nevernever but didn't quite make it all the way through when the explosion happened."

"So he was over there, but his arm was still here?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Maybe the blast followed him through to the other side and he's dead, or maybe he's on the other side nursing his wounds. Like I said, only time will tell."

Castle silently thought about what had become of the first Warlock he had ever encountered. Dresden returned to writing. The police moved about the station working on various cases, the news trolled on about the BP oil spill, and life seemed to continue like nothing had happened.

Dresden and Beckett left once all the paperwork had been completed and all the statements had been taken. There were many goodbyes and handshakes. Promises to visit if they were ever near again, and offers to give a tour of the city 'next time'. Talk of the case was scarce and if it was brought up it was only a few sentences.

Within an hour after they had left, it was as if they had never been there. Ryan and Esposito bantered off each other and Beckett complained about Castle. The end of the work day finally came and to most of the precinct, it was like finishing a marathon. Castle was absently writing down notes into his notebook when it was snatched from his hands. When he tried to turn around to see who had taken his notebook, his ribs reminded him that they were injured.

The notebook dropped onto Castle's lap. "Sorry bro, forgot."

"Esposito, if you ever end up in a cast or sling I will have my revenge."

Ryan put a hand on Castle's shoulder. "Haven't you heard? Esposito and I are super-cops, worst we can get is a bad bruise." This was met with a fist bump from Esposito.

Castle laughed. "All right then, what brings the super cop duo to my chair for the purpose of interrupting my writing?"

"Well, this case is done and I think we could all use a drink or seven."

Castle took a medicine bottle out of his pocket and gave it a quick shake. "Sorry guys, I can't drink."

Ryan took a set of keys out of his pocket and gave them a shake. "No worries, someone has to drive me home."

Castle looked from Ryan to Esposito to the dangling keys. After a few seconds he just smiled and took the keys. Castle told the duo he'd meet them in a few minutes after he got his stuff. As Castle was gathering his things, his eyes fell to his open pocket notebook lying on Beckett's desk. It lay open to a page where he had doodled a little wizard blasting a vampire with fire. It struck him as odd that despite what he had gone through—heck, he had almost died twice—he was making funny cartoons about the experience. He ran through all kinds of rationalizations and explanations, but decided he liked 'comic detachment as coping mechanism' best.

A gentle hand on his shoulder shook him from his thoughts. It was Beckett. "Hey Beckett. Are you going to be joining us at the bar for a few drinks?"

Beckett smiled and nodded. She started to move towards the door, but stopped and turned back to him with a concerned expression. "Castle, you've been through a lot over the past few days. Are you O.K.? We have someone you can talk to if you need to. Or you can talk to me if you-" Becketts face flushed and she looked at the ground, " I mean we're friends so, if you want to-not that you have to if you don't want to. I'm sure you'd be more comfortable talking to Ryan or Esposito. You know, 'guy talk' and all that. Just forget that I-"

Beckett was cut off when Castle hugged her. The hug turned to an embrace that Beckett returned. They stayed in silence for a while until Beckett spoke, with a quiet and uncertain voice that Castle decided didn't fit her at all. "I was worried about you."

Castle didn't know whether to smile for joy or frown out of shame of worrying her, but somehow he did both at once. "I know. And don't worry anymore, I'm going to be O.K."

With a light squeeze, they broke apart and silently headed out of the station to meet Ryan and Esposito. Castle spent the rest of the night in the bar surrounded by his friends, and he knew that he'd be all right. The revelation that magic was out there didn't seem so bad now, and as far as he cared, the world was right. If only for a night.

**A/N: I'm done! HOLY CRAP! I didn't think it'd take me this long to write this chapter. I'm not particularly happy with the ending of this story/chapter, but I'll tweak it later after it's BETA'd. I hope you have all enjoyed this story. I will be returning to my other fic "Whale of a Time" after this, I've had some other fics in the wings waiting to get started (Firefly, SG:A and Keen Eddie) but I really like this genera and I'll be making at least one more.**


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